ether_aton() converts the 48-bit Ethernet host address asc from
the standard hex-digits-and-colons notation into binary data in network byte
order and returns a pointer to it in a statically allocated buffer, which
subsequent calls will overwrite. ether_aton() returns NULL if the
address is invalid.

The ether_ntoa() function converts the Ethernet host
address addr given in network byte order to a string in standard
hex-digits-and-colons notation, omitting leading zeros. The string is
returned in a statically allocated buffer, which subsequent calls will
overwrite.

The ether_ntohost() function maps an Ethernet address to
the corresponding hostname in /etc/ethers and returns nonzero if it
cannot be found.

The ether_hostton() function maps a hostname to the
corresponding Ethernet address in /etc/ethers and returns nonzero if
it cannot be found.

The ether_line() function parses a line in
/etc/ethers format (ethernet address followed by whitespace followed
by hostname; '#' introduces a comment) and returns an address and hostname
pair, or nonzero if it cannot be parsed. The buffer pointed to by
hostname must be sufficiently long, for example, have the same length
as line.

The functions ether_ntoa_r() and ether_aton_r() are
reentrant thread-safe versions of ether_ntoa() and
ether_aton() respectively, and do not use static buffers.

This page is part of release 4.16 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest
version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.